Rebell Featured in Staten Island Advance about Chancellor's New Funding Formula

Published in 1/25/2007 11:52:00 AM

Already offered a choice of which high school to attend,
students on Staten Island will get a similar option at the
middle school level as the city moves toward a systemwide
middle school application process.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein expressed the idea without
specifying a timeline or additional details during private
discussions with principals last night, according to a
Department of Education spokesman.

Those discussions took place in the midst of proposed
changes in the school funding system which, when implemented
in other cities, has similarly led to greater student option
in selecting schools.

At a reporter's roundtable in Manhattan's Tweed
Courthouse earlier yesterday, Klein did not answer
specifically when asked whether the new "weighted"
funding system -- which will pay schools largely according
to monetary values assigned to students, plus additional
funds for students with academic or economic disadvantages
-- would lead to school choice at the elementary or middle
school levels.

"Over time, I hope to increase choice," Klein
told reporters. "As much as we can -- within the
public school system -- facilitate choice, we look forward
to doing so."

A significant number of districts in the city already offer
students a choice of middle schools.

Some education experts have recommended tying weighted
student funding to school choice because it creates a
financial incentive for schools to improve their academic
programs as a means to attract more students -- especially
those with disadvantages.

While it's anticipated that most Island parents would
welcome an option for their middle school children, only one
of the 11 intermediate schools here -- Petrides, in
Sunnyside -- is in good academic standing as far as
meeting state progress markers.

"I don't think I have a choice of a really
challenging program for my child," said Sue Dietrich,
first vice-president of the Staten Island Federation of
Parent Teacher Associations, whose son attends sixth grade
at Prall Intermediate in West Brighton.

However, she added, concerning the prospect of options,
"I personally think that on Staten Island, that would
be good."

A Department of Education source said she believed the
school system would also move toward an elementary school
choice program down the road, creating an open market system
that some people fear -- and others hope -- would make
for an easy transition into a system of school vouchers.

Indeed, President George W. Bush has been trying to promote
the use of school vouchers as part of the No Child Life
Behind Act, which is up for reauthorization this year.

"There are a lot of people who promote and endorse the
weighted student funding system precisely because they think
it's going to lead to a lot more choice within the
public school system and outside the public school system in
the form of vouchers," said Michael Rebell, former
counsel for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and current
executive director of the Campaign for Education Equity at
Columbia University's Teachers College. "It would
certainly facilitate moving in that direction if somebody
wanted to."

Yoav Gonen covers education news for the Advance. He may be
reached at gonen@siadvance.com.

A copy of the article can be found here:http://www.silive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/116973004076760.xml&coll=1